The Temple Legend

Schmidt Number: S-1212a

On-line since: 15th January, 2013

May I
speak to you today about something which is subject to many
misunderstandings and about which many extraordinary errors are
spread abroad. Most of you know that I have already spoken
(Note 1)
on the same subject on the occasion of our General Meeting this year,
and that, at that time, following an ancient occult practice, I spoke
separately to men and to women. For specific reasons which could
probably become still clearer from the lecture itself, I have
departed today from this ancient custom, and, indeed, because the
very thing that motivated me both then and now to discuss this matter
is connected with the [prospect] that sooner or later — hopefully
sooner — this ancient custom will be abandoned altogether.

I said:
many misunderstandings have circulated about the subject. I need only
mention one fact out of my own life to show you that it really is not
exactly easy today to get beyond what are bluntly the bizarre and
superstitious notions in existence about it. On the other hand, I
need only say how easily, how unbelievably, one can put one's foot in
it, when dealing with these extraordinary facts.

May I simply
recall an incident in my life. Perhaps you will scarcely credit it, and
yet it is true. It is now some seventeen or eighteen years ago
(Note 2)
that I was in company with university professors, and
some particularly gifted poets. Among the professors, there were also
some theologians, from the theological faculty of the university in
question. They were Catholics. Now, in this company, the following
was said, not without foundation, and in all seriousness, that one of
these theologians, a very erudite man, would not go out at night any
more, because he believed that the Freemasons would be on the loose.
The man in question represented a major department; but he did not
tell the story, a colleague did. He went on to relate that while he
was in Rome, a number of monks of a particular order — there would
have been eleven, twelve or thirteen of them — had vouched on oath
for the [truth of the] following event.

In Paris
an eminent bishop had preached a sermon in which he had spoken of the
terrible danger to the world of the Order of Freemasons. After the
sermon a man came to him in the sacristy and said that he was a
Freemason and could give the bishop a chance to witness a meeting of
the Lodge. The bishop assented, saying to himself: I will, however,
take some holy relics with me, so that I am protected. — Then a
meeting place was arranged. The man in question led the bishop into
the Lodge, where a hiding place was pointed out to him, from which he
could observe all that took place. He placed himself in position,
held the Holy Relics in front of him and waited for whatever would
befall. What he then saw, was related in the following way. I
emphasise that some of those in the company thought it all rather
doubtful at the time.

The Lodge
was then opened.
(It bore in reality the name ‘Satan's Lodge’ —
though it had quite a different name in the outside world.) Then a
remarkable figure appeared. By ancient custom — how he knew this
custom, he did not relate — the figure did not walk. (It is indeed
well known that spirits do not walk, but glide, so many believe.)
This remarkable figure opened the session. The bishop would on no
account divulge what happened next — it became too terrible —
but he called upon the whole power of the relics and there was a rumbling
like thunder through all the rows [of seats], the call resounding: We
are betrayed! — and the one who had opened the session disappeared.
Briefly, a brilliant victory of episcopal powers over what was to be
done, one supposes.

This was
discussed as a completely serious matter
(Note 3)
[in the company]. You can see from that, that there arc people today, perhaps
gentlemen more erudite than many others, well-known people, who nevertheless
take the view that this sort of thing can happen in Freemasonry.

Now what
happened was
(Note 4)
that in the mid-eighties a French book appeared,
which represented the secrets of the Freemasons in a most gruesome
way, making them certainly more gruesome than secret. This book
particularly revealed how the Freemasons celebrated Black Mass. This
book was a ploy by a French journalist called Leo Taxil. He stirred
up a lot of dust by bringing in a Miss Vaughan as a witness. The
result of all this was that the Church found the Freemasons ai-id
their nocturnal intrigues so dangerous that they felt it necessary to
found a world society against Freemasonry. A kind of council was held
in Trent; although it was not a real council, it was dubbed ‘The
Second Council of Trent. It was attended by many bishops and hundreds
of priests; a cardinal presided. [The Congress became a major coup
for Taxil.] But afterwards rebuttals were published, after which Mr
Taxil revealed that the entire contents of his books, including the
people mentioned in them, were his own invention.

You see,
there are plenty of opportunities for incurring censure over such
things. This was one of the worst cases of a body with a world-wide
reputation doing so. From it you have to draw at least one
conclusion; that hardly anything is really known about the
Freemasons. For if something was known about them it would be easy to
become informed, and then such rubbish could not gain
currency.

Indeed,
this or that opinion about Freemasonry predominates in large sections
of the public. Today, to be sure, it is not all that difficult to
form an opinion, as there is already a tolerably abundant literature,
written partly by those who have studied many documents, but in part
also containing things which the Freemasons would say had been
brought into the open by turncoats. Anyone who concerns himself to
any extent with this literature will draw some sort of conclusion
from what it deals with. However, one can rule out coming to a
correct conclusion from it, since it is still pre-eminently true what
Lessing, who was himself a Freemason, said.
(Note 5)
When he was accepted, the Worshipful Master asked him: ‘Now you see,
don't you, that you have not been initiated into anything particularly
subversive or anti-religious?’ To which Lessing replied: ‘Yes, I
must admit that I haven't learnt any such thing. I would in fact have been
glad to do so, for then, at least, I would have learned something.’

That is
the statement of a man who was able to consider the matter with the
right understanding, and who admitted that he had learned precisely
nothing from what took place there. You can at least draw the
conclusion from that, that those who are not Freemasons know nothing
[about it], since even those who are Freemasons know nothing of any
importance. They generally get the impression that they have gained
nothing in particular from it. And yet it would be quite wrong to
make such an inference.

Now there
is still another opinion, which has little to do with real
Freemasonry. In a text appearing in 1875
(Note 6),
the author claims that Adam became the first Freemason. One can hardly
go further back than the first man in searching for the founder of an
association.

Others
claim that Freemasonry is an old Egyptian art; in short, that it is
what has always been known as the ‘Royal Art,’ and this is indeed
placed by some back in primeval times. Finally, many rites — for thus
the symbolic ways and manners of the Freemasons are designated — bear
Egyptian names, and so from these names you may infer that something
deriving from ancient Egyptian culture is involved. At least the
opinion is widely held, both in and out of Freemasonry, that it is
something very ancient.

Now
Freemasonry is something which can indeed provide people with scope
for reflection. The name itself connects with two perceptions
differing totally from each other. Some claim — and they are no very
great party within Freemasonry — that all Freemasonry originated in
the work done by masons, in the craft of erecting buildings; while
the other opinion considers this to be a childish and naive
conception and claims that Freemasonry was in reality always an art
to do with the soul; and that the symbols taken from the work of
masons — such as, for example, apron, hammer, trowel, chisel,
compass, rule, square, plumb-line, spirit-level, etc. — are to be
seen as symbolic of soul development. Thus, by the expression
‘Masonry’ is to be understood nothing else than the building of the
inner person, the work on the perfection of self. If you talk with a
Freemason today, you can then experience him telling you that it is a
childish and naive outlook that believes that Freemasonry has ever
had anything to do with the work that masons do. On the contrary, it
has never concerned itself with anything else than these things: the
building of the Wonder Temple, which is the theatre of the human
soul, the work on the human soul itself, which has to be perfected,
and the art which one must apply to all this. Now all this is
expressed in these symbols, so as not to expose it to profane
eyes.

Looked at
from our contemporary standpoint, both of these views are wholly and
utterly wrong, and are so for the following reasons. As regards the
first opinion, present day man — in talking about the Freemasons
having derived from the work of building — no longer conceives
himself to be as significant as he properly should; as for the second
opinion, that the symbols are only there to serve as metaphors for
the work on the soul, this opinion — even though it is regarded by
most Freemasons as something quite irrefutable — is, when properly
conceived, a nonsense. It is much more correct to link Freemasonry
with the work of building, not, indeed, as architecture or
construction are thought of today, but in a fundamentally deeper
sense.

Today
there are broadly two trends in Freemasonry. The one is represented
by far the larger number of those calling themselves masons today.
And this majority trend claims now that all masonry is comprised in
what it terms the so-called Symbolic or Craft Masonry. Its principal
outward characteristic is that it is divided into three degrees, the
apprentice, journeyman and master degrees; as for the inward
characteristics, we will have something to say presently. Apart from
these Craft Masons, there are still quite a number of masons who
maintain that Craft Masonry is only a product of the decline of the
great universal masonic idea. [They consider] it would be a falling
away from this great masonic idea, if it is claimed that masonry
comprises only these three Symbolic or Craft degrees; whereas in fact
the essence, the fundamental meaning of Freemasonry lies in the
so-called Higher Degrees, which are best preserved in the so-called
Scottish or Accepted Rite, which, in a particular respect, still
conserves [a relic of] what is called the Egyptian, the Misraim or
the Memphis Rite.
(Note 7)

Thus we
have two tendencies confronting each other: the Craft Masonry, and
the Higher Degree masonry. The Craft- Masons claim that the Higher
Degrees are nothing but a frippery based in human vanity, that takes
pleasure in having something special, something spiritually
aristocratic, with its ascent from degree to degree, and its pride in
the possession of the eighteenth or twentieth or still higher degree.

Now you
have already become acquainted with quite a bundle of things likely
to lead to misunderstandings.

The
Higher Degree Freemasonry traces itself back to the old Mysteries,
to the procedures which to the extent possible we have described and
will describe, in our theosophy; procedures which have been in
existence since primordial times and still exist today, and which
have preserved the higher super-sensible knowledge for mankind. This
super-sensible knowledge, accessible to men, would be transmitted [by]
those who could attain entry to these Mystery centres; for certain
super-sensible powers were developed in them, enabling them to see
into the super-sensible world. These primordial Mysteries — they have
become something else nowadays, and we do not want to speak of that
now — contained the original seed for all later spiritual culture.
For what was enacted in these primordial mysteries was not what
constitutes human culture today.

If you
wish to understand present-day culture and immerse yourself in it,
you will find that it divides into three realms — the realm of
wisdom, the realm of beauty and the realm of strength. The whole
extent of spiritual culture is in fact contained in these three
words. Therefore they are known as the three pillars of human
culture. They are the same as the three Kings in Goethe's fairy story
of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily
(Note 8)
— the Gold King, the Silver King and the Brass King. This is
connected with Freemasonry being called ‘the Royal Art.’
Today these three realms are separated
from each other. Wisdom is essentially contained in what we call
science; beauty is essentially embodied in what we call art; and
what, in Freemasonry terms, is known as Strength is contained in the
regulated and organised living together of humanity in the State. The
Freemason subsumes all this in the relation of the will to these
three principles, wisdom, beauty and strength.

What they [these three principles] were to give to
humanity was in primeval times bestowed on the candidate for
initiation by the revelation of the Mystery secrets. We arc now
looking back to a time when religion, science and art had not yet
become separated, but when they were still combined. In fact, to
anyone who can see supersensibly, astrally, these three principles
are not for him separate; wisdom, beauty and the domain of the will
impulses are for him one unity — On the higher realms of vision there
is no abstract science; only a science which exists in pictures, in
that which has only a shadowy existence in the [external] world, and
finds a shadowy expression in the imagination. What can [now] be read
in books, in this or that record of the Creation [about the origin of
the world and of humanity I, was not described; instead it was brought
before the eyes of the pupil in living pictures, in magnificent
harmonious colour. And what the pupil would perceive as wisdom was
art and beauty at the same time, was something which stirred his
feelings to greater heights than we experience in front of an
exquisite work of art. The yearning for truth and beauty, wisdom and
art, and the religious impulse as well, [all] developed themselves
simultaneously. The artist's eye looked at what was enacted [in the
Mysteries]
(Note 9)
and he who sought piety found the object of his
religious ardour in these high events that were enacted before his
eyes. Religion, art and science were one.

Then came
the time when this unity split itself up into three cultural
provinces; the time when the intellect went its own way. Science
arose at the same time when the Mysteries which I have just described
lost their importance. You know that Western philosophy and science,
science proper, began with Thales. That is the time when it first
developed out of the former fullness of the life of the Mysteries.
Then also began what in the Western sense is conceived of as art; for
Greek dramatic art developed itself out of the Mysteries. Whereas in
India, up to the time of the Egyptian cult,
(Note 10)
one was concerned with the suffering and death of gods, with the great Greek
tragedian-poets, such as Aeschylus, Sophocles, etc., we are dealing
with individual human beings, who are images of the great Godhead.
Through these human beings, the pupils of the Mysteries reconstructed
the suffering, struggling and needy Godhead, thus displaying God to
the human audience through their human imagery.

Whoever
wants to understand what Aristotle meant by purification, catharsis,
(Note 11)
must interpret the concept by means of the astral, by means of
the secrets of the Mysteries. The expressions which he employs for
tragedy [by way of explaining it] are a dim reflection of what the
pupils learnt in the Mystery [schools]. Remember how Lessing
investigated the soul forces of fear and compassion that are to be
aroused through tragedy. That has furnished the material for many a
great and learned discussion since the days of Lessing. [For the
Mystery pupil] these emotions would be aroused in reality, when God
was portrayed to him in his passage through the world. The passions
present [deep] in the human soul were thereby straightforwardly
stirred up and drawn out, just as one induces a fever and brings it
to its culmination. This led to purification so as to be able to
proceed to rebirth. All this appeared in shadow images in the ancient
Greek tragedies. Just as with science, so has art, too, developed out
of these ancient Mysteries.

It is to
these ancient Mysteries that the Higher Degree Freemasons trace back
their origin. In their higher degrees they have nothing else than an
imitation of the higher degrees of the Mysteries, into which the
Mystery candidate was gradually initiated. Now we can also understand
why the Craft Freemasons insist so much that there should be no more
such higher degrees. Actually, the higher degrees have more or less
lost their meaning in Freemasonry in recent centuries. What has taken
place in culture during recent centuries has been largely
uninfluenced from this quarter. But there was a time when the great
cultural impulses issued precisely from what Freemasonry should be.
in order to understand this, we must look a little deeper into an age
to which I have often referred already here, but now wish to mention
in a masonic context, that is, the twelfth century of our European
cultural development.

At that
time occultism, appearing under a variety of names, played a much
greater role in the contemporary culture than anyone could ever
imagine today. But all these different names are no longer relevant
today, and I will indeed explain why. By an example from Freemasonry
itself, I will show you why these names contribute nothing essential
to understanding the matter.

What I am
now about to relate, anyone can experience if they become an
apprentice Freemason; and, since these things are known, at least by
name, I am able to speak about them.

A
customary practice is what is known as ‘tyling.’ When the Lodge is
opened and the Worshipful Master has taken his seat and the Outer
Guard is at his post, the first question of the Worshipful Master is:
Has the Lodge been tyled? The number of Freemasons who understand
what this expression means are probably very few. Since the matter is
simple, I can indeed give you an explanation of the term. At the time
of which I am speaking, to be a Freemason meant to stand in vehement
opposition to everything that commanded outward, official power.
Therefore it was necessary to conduct the affairs of the Freemasons,
with exceptionally great caution. Precisely for this reason, it was
at that time necessary for Freemasonry to appear under various names
which sounded harmless. Among other names they called each other
‘Brethren of the Craft’ and so on. Today Freemasonry has accomplished
a large part of what it then set out to do. Today it is itself
officially a power in the world.

If you
ask me what Freemasonry is really about, I must answer with abstract
words; it consists in this, that its members aim to anticipate in
thought by several centuries the events that are to occur in the
world; and to perfect the high ideals of humanity in a fully
conscious way, so that these ideals are not just abstract
ideas.

Today,
when a Freemason talks about ideals and one asks him what he means by
the highest ideals, he will say that the highest ideals are wisdom,
beauty and strength; which, however, on further consideration, is
usually nothing but a form of words. If at that time — or now indeed
— the discussion about these ideals is with someone who actually
understands something about this, then the discussion will be about
something quite specific — about something so specific that it
relates to the course of events in the coming centuries, in the same
way as the thoughts of an architect building a factory relate to the
factory when finished.

At that
time [in the twelfth century] it was dangerous to know [in advance]
what was to happen later. Hence it was necessary to make use of
harmless sounding words, as a cover. And that is also where the
expression originated, ‘Is the Lodge tyled?’, which means, in effect,
‘Are only those present who know the meaning of the things which have
to be implanted in the future development of mankind by Freemasonry?’
For each had to reflect that they must never let themselves be
recognised as Freemasons when they appeared in public. This
precautionary rule, then essential, has been maintained until our
time. Whether many Freemasons know what is meant thereby, is
questionable. Most think it is some sort of verbal formality, or they
interpret more or less astutely. I could give you countless more such
examples that would show you how outer circumstances have led to the
adoption of practical rules for which people now try to discover some
deep symbolic explanation.

But now
for the very heart of what was attempted in the twelfth century. That
is expressed in the deeply significant Saga of the Holy Grail,
(Note 12)
of that enchanted vessel which is said to have come from the distant
East, and to have the power to rejuvenate people, to bring the dead
back to life, and so on.

Now what is the
Holy Grail — in Freemasonry terms — and what is it that lies
at the bottom of the whole saga? We shall best be able to understand
what it is all about if we call to mind a symbol of certain
Freemasonry associations, a symbol misunderstood today in the
coarsest way imaginable. It is a symbol taken from sexual life. It is
absolutely true that precisely one of the deepest secrets of
Freemasonry has a symbol taken from sexual life; and that many people
who try to explain such symbols today are only following their own
sordid fantasies when they understand these symbols in an impure
sense. It is very likely that the interpretation of these sexual
symbols will play no small role in times to come, that it is
precisely this which will then reveal the parlous state into which
the great ancient secrets of Freemasonry have fallen today; and on
the other hand, how necessary it is in the present time for the pure,
noble and profound basis of the Freemasonry, symbols to be kept
sacred and unblemished.

Those of
you who heard my recent lecture
(Note 13)
at the General Meeting will know
that the true original significance of these symbols is connected
with the reason for not allowing women to become Freemasons until a
short while ago, and the reason for addressing men and women
separately on these matters until [just] recently. On the other hand
you also know that these symbols are linked — and I particularly
stress this — with the two great streams running through the whole
world, and rising to the highest spiritual realm; which streams we
also encounter as the law of polarity in the forces of male and female.
(Note 14)
Within that culture which we now have to consider, the
priestly principle is expressed in masonic terminology as the female
principle in the spiritual realm — in that spiritual realm which is
most closely related to cultural evolution. The rule of the priests
is expressed by the female [principle]. On the other hand, the male
principle is everything which is opposed to this priestly rule;
however, in such a way that this opponent has to be considered as the
holiest, the noblest, the greatest and the most spiritual [principle]
in the world, no less. There are thus two streams with which we have
to deal: a female and a male stream. The Freemasons see Abel as
representing the female current, Cain, the male.

Here we
come to the fundamental concept of Freemasonry, which to be sure is
old, very old. Freemasonry developed in ancient times as the opponent
of the priestly culture. We must now, however, make clear, in the
right way, what is to be understood by priestly culture.

What is
involved here has nothing to do with Petty opposition to churches or
creeds. Priestliness can show itself in the most completely secular
[people]; even what manifests itself today as science, that holds
sway in many cultural groups, is nothing else than what is known in
Freemasonry terms as the priestly element, though [there are?] other
[such groups?] which are profoundly masonic. We must conceive such
things, then, in their entire profundity, if we want to appraise them
correctly. May I explain by an example how what manifests as science
can often be what is denoted in Freemasonry as the priestly
element.

Who today
among doctors would not scoff if told about the healing properties of
the spring at Lourdes? On the other hand, what doctor would not
accept as a matter of course that it is wholly reasonable for certain
people to go to Wiesbaden or Karlsbad? I know I am saying something
fearfully heretical, but then I represent neither the priesthood nor
even medicine; however a time is already coming when an unbiased
judgment will be pronounced on both. Were there an effective medicine
today, faith in the power of healing would be among the things a
doctor would prescribe. One patient would be sent to Karlsbad and
another to Lourdes, but both for the same reason. Whether you call it
great piety on the one hand, or blatant superstition on the other, in
the last analysis it is the same thing.

Understood in this way, we can characterise what underlies the
priestly principle as refraining from investigating fundamentals, as
accepting things as they present themselves from whatever aspect of
the world, as being satisfied with what is thus given. The symbol of
that for which man does nothing, the proper symbol for what is, in
the truest sense of the word, donated to man, that symbol is taken
from sexual life. The human being is [indeed] productive there, but
what manifests itself in this productive force has nothing to do with
human art, with human science or with human ability; from it is
excluded everything which causes itself to be expressed in the three
pillars of the ‘Royal Art.’ So when some present these sexual symbols
to humanity, they want to say: In this symbol, human nature expresses
itself, not as man has made it, but as it has been given by the gods.
This finds its expression in Abel, the hunter and herdsman, who
offers the sacrificial animal, the sacrificial lamb, thereby offering
what he himself has done nothing to produce, which came into
existence independently of him.

What did
Cain, on the other hand, offer? He sacrificed what he had obtained by
his own labour, what he had won from the fruits of the earth by
tilling the soil. What he sacrificed needed human skill, knowledge
and wisdom: that which demands comprehension of what one has done,
which is based in a spiritual sense on the freedom of man to decide
things for himself. That has to be paid for with guilt, by killing,
first of all, the living things which had been,given by Nature or by
Divine Powers, just as Cain killed Abel.

Through guilt lies the path to freedom. Everything
which is born into the world — upon which man can, at best, act only
in a secondary way — everything given to man by Divine Powers,
everything which is there without him needing to work at it
incessantly; all this is given to us first of all in the Kingdoms of
Nature over which we have no control — in those Kingdoms
(the Plant, Animal and Human Kingdoms) whose forces are isolated from any
human contribution, because in these Kingdoms it is physical reproduction
that is involved. All the reproductory forces in these Kingdoms are
given to us by Nature. Inasmuch as we take what is living for our use
— because we make the world our dwelling place, which developed
itself out of what is living — we thereby offer the sacrifice given
to us, just as Abel offered the sacrifice given to him.

The
symbol for these three Kingdoms is the Cross. The lower beam
symbolises the Plant Kingdom, the middle or cross beam, the Animal
Kingdom, and the upper beam, the Human Kingdom.

The plant
has its roots buried in the earth and directs upwards, in the
blossom, those parts which, in man, are directed downwards. It is the
reproductive organs of the plant that appear in the blossom. The
downward-turned part, the root, is the plant's head, buried in the
earth. The animal is the plant turned half way and carries its
backbone horizontally, in relation to the earth. Man is the plant
turned completely round, so that the lower part is directed
upwards.

This view
lies at the basis of all the mysteries of the Cross. And when
theosophy shows us how man has to pass, In the course of his
evolution, through the various Kingdoms of Nature, through the Plant,
Animal and Human Kingdoms, then that is the same thing expressed by
Plato in the beautiful words, ‘The World Soul is nailed to the Cross
of the World Body.’
(Note 15)
The human soul is a spark struck from the
World Soul, and the human being, as physical human being, is plant,
animal and physical man at the same time. Inasmuch as the World Soul
has divided itself up into the individual sparks of human souls, it
is, as it were, nailed to the World Cross, nailed to what is
expressed in the three Kingdoms, the Animal, Plant and Human
Kingdoms. Powers which man has not mastered are at work in these
Kingdoms. If he wants to control them, then he must create a new
Kingdom of his very own, which is not expressed in the
Cross.

When
talking about this subject I am often asked: Where is the Mineral
Kingdom in all this? The mineral kingdom is not symbolised in the
Cross; because it is that Kingdom which man can already express
himself in clear and blinding clarity, where he has learnt to apply
the techniques of weighing and calculating, of geometry and
arithmetic; in short, everything pertaining to inorganic nature, to
the inorganic Mineral Kingdom.

If you
contemplate a temple, you know that man has erected it with ruler,
compasses, square, plumb-line and spirit level, and finally with the
thinking that inorganic nature has transmitted to the architect in
geometry and mechanics. And as you continue your contemplation of the
whole temple, you will find it to be an inanimate object born out of
human freedom and brainwork. You cannot say that, however, if you
subject a plant or an animal to human observation.

So you
see that what man has mastered, what he is able to master, is, up to
now, the realm of the inanimate. And everything which the human being
has converted to harmony and order out of the inanimate world is the
symbol of his Royal Art on earth. What he has implanted into the
Mineral Kingdom with his Royal Art started as an outflow, an
incarnation of Divine wisdom. Go back to the time of the ancient
Chaldeans and Egyptians, when it was not only the intellect that was
used in building, but when heightened perceptions permeated
everything; the controlling of inorganic nature was then seen as the
‘Royal Art,’ which is why the control of nature was denoted as ‘Free
masonry.’ At first this may seem to be fantasy, but it is more than
that.

Picture
to yourselves that instant, that point in time in our earth's
development, when no one had yet applied his hand to the shaping of
inorganic Nature, when the whole planet was presented to man just as
it came from Nature! And what happened then? Look back to the
construction of the Egyptian pyramids, in which stone was fitted to
stone through human agency. Nature's creation was given a new shape
as a result of human thought. Human wisdom has thus transformed the
earth. That was perceived as the proper mission of free constructing
man on earth. Using a wide variety of tools, guided by human wisdom,
human powers have brought about in the mineral world a transformation
that has unfolded between primordial times and the present day, when
human powers can influence far distances without mechanical means.
And that is the first pillar, the pillar of wisdom.

Somewhat
later we see the second pillar established, the pillar of beauty, of
art. Art is likewise a means of pouring the human spirit into
lifeless matter, and again the result is an ensoulment (conquest)
(Note 16)
of the inanimate to be found in Nature. Try for a moment to
picture in your mind how the wisdom in art gradually overcomes and
masters lifeless Nature, and you will see how what is there without
man's participation is reshaped piece by piece by man himself. Visualise
— as a fantasy, if you must — the effect of the whole earth
having been transformed by the hand of man, the effect of the whole
earth becoming a work of art, full of wisdom and radiating beauty,
built by man's hand, conceived by man's wisdom! It may seem fantastic
but it is more than that. For it is humanity's mission on earth, to
transform the planet artistically. You find this expressed in the
second pillar, the pillar of beauty.

To which
you can add, as the third pillar, the reshaping of the human race in
national and state life, and you have the propagation of the human
spirit in the world; you have this right here in the realm of what is
lifeless.

Hence the
medieval people of the twelfth century reflected, in looking back to
the ancient wisdom, that the wisdom of times past was preserved in
marble monuments, while contemporary wisdom is to be found in the
human heart. For it is manifested through the artist, becoming a work
of art through the labour of his hands. What he feels he impresses
into matter that is unformed, he chisels out of the dead stone; while
the inner soul of man does not of course live in this dead stone, it
does manifest itself there. All art is dedicated to this purpose;
there is always this mastering of unliving, inorganic nature,
regardless of whether it is a sculptor chiseling marble or a painter
arranging colour, light and shade. And even the statesman gives
structure to Nature [?]
(Note 17)
... always, — apart from when plant, animal, or human forces come
into it — you are dealing with man's own spirit.

Thus, the
medieval thinker of the twelfth century looked back at the occult
wisdom of the ancient Chaldeans, at Greek art and beauty, and at the
strength in the concept of the state in the Roman Empire. These are
the three great pillars of world history — wisdom, beauty and
strength. Goethe portrayed them in his ‘Fairy Story’ as the Three
Kings — occult wisdom in the Gold King, beauty as in Greece in the
Silver King, and, in the Brass King, strength as it found its world
historical expression in the Roman concept of the State, and as then
adopted in the organisation of the Christian Church. And the Middle
Ages; with its chaos
(Note 18)
resulting from the impact of the migrating
nations, and with its mixed styles, is expressed in the misshapen
Mixed King made of gold, silver and brass; what was kept separate in
the various ancient cultures, is mixed together in him. Later, the
separate forces must once more develop themselves out of this chaos,
to a higher level.

All those
who, in the Middle Ages, took the Holy Grail as their symbol, set
themselves the task of using human powers to bring these separate
forces to a higher stage [of development]. The Holy Grail was to have
been something essentially new, even though it is closely related in
its own symbolism to the symbols of a very ancient mystical
tradition.

What then
is the Holy Grail? For those who understand this legend correctly, it
signifies — as can even be proved by literary means
(Note 19)
— the following:

Till now,
man has only mastered the inanimate in Nature -the transformation of
the living forces, the transformation of what sprouts and grows in
the plants, and of what manifests itself in animal [and human]
reproduction that is beyond his power. Man has to leave these
mysterious powers of Nature untouched. There he cannot encroach. What
results from these forces cannot be fully comprehended by him. An
artist can certainly create a strangely beautiful Zeus, but he cannot
fully comprehend this Zeus; in the future, man will reach a level
where he can do that as well. Just as it is so, that man has achieved
control over Inanimate nature, has mastered gravity with spirit level
and plumb-line, and the directional forces of Nature with the aid of
geometry and mechanics; so it is the case that in future man will
himself control what he only receives as a gift from Nature or the
Divine powers — namely, the living.

When in
the past Abel sacrificed what he had been given by Divine hand, he
was thus sacrificing, in the realm of the living, only what he had
received from nature. Cain, by contrast, had offered something which
he had himself won from the earth by his own labour, as the fruits of
effort.
(Note 20)
Hence, at this time [in the Middle Ages], a radically
new impulse was introduced into Freemasonry. And this impulse is that
denoted by the symbol of the Holy Grail, the power of self-sacrifice.
I have often said, harmony in human relationships is not brought
about by preaching it, but by creating it. Once the necessary forces
have been awakened in human nature, there is no more unbrotherliness.
[The concepts of] majority and minority are meaningless in what the
masonic symbols express; in it there can be no contention, for it is
only a matter of ‘can’ or ‘cannot.’

No
majority can decide whether one should use a plumb-line or a spirit
level; the facts must decide that. In that all men are brothers,
there they find themselves to be one. On that there can be no
contention, if everyone treads the path of objectivity, the path
which entails the acquisition of higher powers. Thus, the bond [of
the Freemasons] is without doubt a bond of brotherhood which in the
broadest sense depends on what men have in common in inanimate
Nature.

However,
not every power is still available there. Some things which were once
there have disappeared again, because in the cycle of Nature in which
we now find ourselves, and which we call earth, it is material
perception which is to the fore, while intuitive perception has been
lost. May I indicate just one case; in architecture, the ability to
design a really acoustic building has been completely lost. Yet, in
the past, this art was understood. Whoever puts a building together
by outward [concepts] alone, will never create an acoustic; but
anyone who thinks intuitively, with his thoughts rooted in higher
realms will be enabled to accomplish an acoustic building. Those who
know that also know that, in the future, those forces of outward
nature over which we have no control at present must be conquered,
just as man has already conquered gravity, light and electricity in
inanimate nature.

Although
our age is not yet so advanced as to be able to control outwardly
living Nature, although that cultural epoch has not yet come in which
living and life-giving forces come to be mastered, nevertheless,
there is already the preparatory school for this, which was founded
by the movement called the Lodge of the Holy Grail. The time will
however come — and it will be quite a specific point in time — when
humanity, deviating from its present tendency, will see that deep
inward soul forces cannot be decided by majority resolutions; that no
vote can settle questions involving the limitless realm of love,
involving what one feels or senses. That force which is common to all
mankind, which expresses itself in the intellectual as an
all-embracing unity about which there can be no conflict, is called
Manas. And when men have progressed so far that they are not only at
one in their intellect, but also in their perceptions and feelings,
and are in harmony in their inmost souls, so far that they find
themselves in what is noble and good, so far that they lovingly join
together in the objective, in what they have in common, in the same
way that they agree that two times two makes four and three times
three equals nine; then the time will have arrived when men will be
able to control the living as well. Unanimity — objective unanimity
in perception and feeling — with all humanity really embracing in
love: such is the pre-condition for gaining control over the
living.

Those who
founded the movement of the Holy Grail in the twelfth century said
that this control over living [nature] was at one time available,
available to the gods who created the Cosmos and descended [to earth]
in order to give mankind the germ of the capacity for the same divine
forces that they already possessed themselves; so that man is now on
the way to becoming a god, having something in his inner being which
strives upwards towards where the gods once stood. Today, the
understanding, the intellect, is the predominant force; in the future
it will be love [Buddhi], and in a still more distant future, man
will attain the stage of Atma.

This
joint force (communal force)
(Note 21)
which gives man power over what is symbolised by the cross,

is
expressed as far as the gods' use of the force is concerned — by a
symbol, namely by a triangle with its apex pointing downwards. And
when it is a matter of this force expressing itself in man's nature,
as it germinally strives upwards towards the Divine force, then it is
symbolised by a triangle with its apex pointing upwards. The gods
have lifted themselves out from man's nature and have withdrawn from
him; but they have left the triangle behind with him, which will
develop further within him. This triangle is also the symbol of the
Holy Grail.

The
medieval occultist expressed the symbol of the Grail — the symbol for
awakening perfection in the living — in the form of a triangle. That
does not need a communal church, entwining itself around the planet
in a rigid organisation, though this can well give something to the
individual soul; but if all souls are to strike the same note, then
the power of the Holy Grail must be awakened in each individual.
Whoever wants to awaken the power of the Grail in himself will gain
nothing by asking the powers of the official church whether they can
perhaps tell him something; rather, he should awaken this power in
himself, and should not question all that much. Man starts from
dullness [of mind] and progresses through doubt to strength. This
pilgrimage of the soul is expressed in the person of Parsifal, who
seeks the Holy Grail. This is one of the manifold deeper meanings of
the figure of Parsifal.

Does it
further my knowledge if a corporate body, be they ever so great,
proclaims mathematical truth through their official spokesmen? If I
want to learn mathematics, I must occupy myself with it, and gain an
understanding of it .or myself. And of what use is it if a corporate
body possesses the power of the Cross?
(Note 23)
If I want to make use of the power of the Cross, the control of what
is living, then I must achieve this myself. No one else can tell it to
me, or communicate it through words; at best they can show it to me in
the symbol, give me the shining symbol of the Grail, but it cannot be
told in an intellectual formula.

The first accomplishment of this medieval
occultism would have been, consequently, what appeared in so many
different movements in Europe: the striving for individuality in
religion, the escape from the rigid uniformity of the organised
church. You can barely grasp to what extent this tendency underlies
Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival.
(Note 24)
What manifested itself for the first time in the Reformation was already
inherent in the symbol of the Holy Grail. Whoever has a feeling for the
great meaning of what can confront us in this symbolism, will understand
its great and deep cultural value. The great things of the world are
not born in noise and tumult, but in intimacy and stillness. Mankind
is not brought forward in its development by the thunder of cannons,
but through the strength of what is born in the intimacy of such
secret brotherhoods, through the strength of what is expressed in
such world-embracing symbols, which inspire
mankind.

Since
that time, through innumerable channels, the hearts of men have
received as an inflow, what was conceived by those who were initiated
into the mysteries of the Holy Grail in the middle of the twelfth
century; who had to hide themselves from the world under pseudonyms,
but who were really the leaven preparing the culture of the last four
hundred years,

The
guardians of great secrets, of those forces which continually
influence human developments live in the occult brotherhoods. I can
only hint at what is really involved, because the matter itself goes
very deeply into the occult realm.

For those
who really gain access to such mysteries, one practical result is a
clearer perspective of world happenings [in the future].

Slowly
but surely the organic, the living forces intervene in the
present-day cycle of humanity's development. There will come a time —
however fantastic this might seem to contemporary people — when man
will no longer paint only pictures, will no longer make only lifeless
sculptures, but will be in a position to breathe life into what he
now merely paints, merely forms with colours or with a
chisel.

However,
what will appear less fantastic is the fact that today the first dawn
is already beginning, for the use of these living forces in the
affairs of social life- that is the real secret surrounding the
Grail. The last event brought about in the social sphere by the old
Freemasonry was the French Revolution, in which the basic idea of the
old Freemasonry came into the open in the social sphere with the
ideas of equality, liberty and fraternity as its corollaries. Whoever
knows this also knows that the ideas which emanated from the Grail
were propagated through innumerable channels, and constituted the
really active force in the French Revolution.

What is
today called socialism exists only as an abortive and impossible
experiment, as a final, I may say desperate, struggle in a receding
wave of humanity's [development]. It cannot bring about any really
positive result. What it sets out to achieve, can only be achieved
through living activity; the pillar of strength is not enough.
Socialism can no longer be controlled with inanimate forces. The
ideas of the French Revolution — liberty, equality, fraternity were
the last ideas to flow out of the inanimate. Everything that still
runs on that track is fruitless and doomed to die. For the great evil
existing in the world today, the dreadful misery that expresses
itself with such frightful force, that is called the social question,
can no longer be controlled by the inanimate. A Royal Art is needed
for that; and it is this Royal Art which was inaugurated in the
symbol of the Holy Grail.

Through this Royal Art, man must acquire control
of something similar to the force which sprouts in the plant, the
same force that the occultist uses when he accelerates the growth of
a plant in front of him. In a similar way, a part of this force must
be used for social salvation. This power, which is described by those
who know something of the Rosicrucian mysteries — as for example did
Bulwer Lytton in his futuristic novel Vril
(Note 25)
is at present still in an elementary, germinal, stage. In the Freemasonry
of the future, it will be the real content of the higher degrees. The Royal
Art will in the future be a social art.

Again, I have to tell you something which will
seem fantastic to the uninitiated, on account, I may say, of the
comprehensive, all-embracing range of the idea. What man prints as a
form deriving from his soul on the matter of this earth Round is
eternal, it will not pass away. Even though the matter thus given
form outwardly decays, what the Royal Art has given form to, in
pyramids, temples and churches, is imperishable. What the human
spirit has given shape to, in matter, will remain present in the
world as a continuing force. That is completely clear to those who
are initiated in such matters. Cologne's Gothic cathedral will, for
example, pass away; but it is of far reaching significance that the
atoms were once in this form. This form itself is the imperishable
thing that will henceforth participate in the ongoing evolutionary
process of humanity, just as the living force that is in the plant
participates in the evolution of Nature! The painter, who paints a
picture today, who prints dead matter with his soul's blood, is also
creating something which will sooner or later be disposed in
thousands of atoms. What has imperishable and continuing value, what
is eternal, is that he has created, that something from his
soul has flowed into matter.

States
and all other human communities come and go before our eyes. But what
men have formed out of their souls, as such communities, constitute
humanly-conceived ideas of eternal value, with an eternally enduring
significance. And when this human race once again appears on the
earth in a new form, then it will see the fruits of these elements of
eternal value.

Today,
whoever turns his gaze upwards to the starry heavens sees a wonderful
harmony. This harmony has evolved, it was not always there. When we
build a cathedral we place stone upon stone, when we paint a picture
we place colour next to colour, when we organise a community we make
law upon law; in exactly the same way, creative beings once worked
upon what confronts us today as the cosmos. Neither moon nor sun
would shine, no animal, no plant, would reproduce itself, unless
everything we face in the cosmos had been worked upon by beings,
unless there were such beings who worked as we work today on the
remodelling of the cosmos. Just as we work on the cosmos today
through wisdom, beauty and strength, so too did beings who do not
belong to our present human Kingdom once work on the
cosmos.

Any
harmony is always the outcome of the disharmony of an earlier time.
Just as stones were given form for a Greek temple, just as they
abounded in other forms, in a perplexing variety of forms, out of
which they became a coordinated structure, just as the profusion of
colours on the palette is meaningfully arrayed in a picture, so, in
just the same way, all matter was in other chaotic relationships
before the creating spirit transformed it into this cosmos. The same
thing is recapitulating itself at a new level, and only he who sees
the whole can work on the details correctly and clearly. Everything
which has had real significance for humanity's progress in the world
has been brought about with care and judgment and through initiation
into the great laws of the world plan. What the day produces is
ephemeral. What is created in the day through knowledge of the
eternal laws is, however, imperishable. To create in the day through
knowledge of the eternal laws is the same thing as
Freemasonry.

Thus you
see that what confronts us in art, science and religion, beyond what
is given by the gods and expressed in the symbol of the Cross, is in
fact brought about by Freemasonry, from which everything that has
been properly built in the world derives. Freemasonry is thus
intimately involved in everything that human hand has shaped in the
world, with everything that culture has created out of raw, inanimate
matter. Go back to the great things the cultural epochs have
produced; consider, for example, the poems of Homer. What is
contained in them? What the initiates have taught mankind in great
world-embracing ideas. The great artists did not invent their topics,
but rather gave form to what embraces all humanity. Is a
Michaelangelo conceivable without the power of Christian concepts?
Try in the same way to trace back to its origin whatever has achieved
a really incisive cultural meaning, and you will in every case be led
back to what has come from initiation [in the Mysteries].

Everything must in the end undergo a schooling. The last four
hundred years were in fact a schooling for humanity — the school of
godlessness, in which there was purely human experimentation, a
return to chaos if seen from a particular point of view. Everyone is
experimenting today, without being aware of the connection with
higher worlds — apart from those who have once more sought and found
that connection with spiritual realms. Nearly everyone lives entirely
for himself today, without perceiving anything of the real and
all-penetrating common design. That of course is the cause of the
dreadful dissatisfaction everywhere.

What we
need is a renewal of the Grail Chivalry in a modern form. Anyone who
can approach this will thereby come to know the real forces which
today are still lying hidden in the course of human
evolution.

Today so
many people take up the old symbols without understanding them; what
is thus made out of the sexual symbols in an uncomprehending way
comes nowhere near to a correct understanding of masonic concepts.
Such understanding is to be sought in precisely those things which
redeem mere natural forces; in penetrating and mastering what is
living in the same way that the geometrician penetrates and masters
the inanimate with his rule, compasses, spirit level and so forth;
and in working upon the living in the same way those who build a
temple put the unliving stones together. That is the great masonic
concept of the future.

There is
a very ancient symbol in Freemasonry, the so-called Tau:

This
Tau sign plays a major role in Freemasonry.
It is basically nothing else than a Cross from which the upper arm
has been taken away. The Mineral Kingdom is excluded in order to
obtain the Cross at all — man already controls that. If one lets the
Plant Kingdom come into play [in Aktion treten] then one obtains
the Cross directed upwards:
(Note 26)

What
unfolds itself from the earth, from the soul, as power over the
earth, is the symbol of future Freemasonry.

Whoever
heard my last lecture about Freemasonry
(Note 27)
will remember my telling
you about the Freemasonry legend of Hiram-Abiff, and how at a
particular point he makes use of the Tau sign, when the Queen of
Sheba wanted him to call together once more the workers engaged in
building the Temple. Now the people working together in social
partnership would never appear at Solomon's command; but at the
signal of the Tau — which Hiram-Abiff raised aloft — they all
appeared from all sides. The Tau sign symbolises a totally new power,
based on freedom, and consisting in the awakening of a new natural
force.

May I be
allowed to resume at the remark with which I ended last time,
(Note 28)
when I told you where such great control over inanimate Nature leads.
Without much fantasy, one can show what is. involved by an example.
Wireless telegraphy works across a distance from the transmitting
station to the receiving station. The apparatus can be set to work at
will, it is effective over great distances, and one can make oneself
understood by it. A similar force to that by which wireless
telegraphy works will be at man's disposal in a future age, without
even any apparatus; this will make it possible to cause great
devastation over long distances, without anyone being able to
discover where the disturbance originated. Then, when the high point
of this development has been reached, it will eventually come to the
point where it falls back on itself.

What is
expressed by the Tau is a driving force which can only be set in
motion by the power of selfless love. It will be possible to use this
power to drive machines, which will, however, cease to function if
egoistical people make use of them.

It is
perhaps known to you that Keely invented a motor
(Note 29)
which would only go if he himself were present. He was not deceiving
people about this; for he had in him that driving force originating in
the soul, which can set machines in motion. A driving force which can
only be moral, that is the idea of the future; a most important force,
with which culture must be inoculated, if it is not to fall back on
itself. The mechanical and the moral must interpenetrate each other,
because the mechanical is nothing without the moral. Today we stand
hard on this frontier. In the future machines will be driven not only
by water and steam, but by spiritual force, by spiritual morality.
This power is symbolised by the Tau sign and was indeed poetically
symbolised by the image of the Holy Grail.
(Note 30)
Man is no longer merely dependent on what Nature will freely give him
to use; he can shape and transform Nature, he has become the master
craftsman of the inanimate. In the same way he will become the master
craftsman of what is living.

As
something that must be conquered, the old sexual symbol stands at the
turning point for Freemasonry. You could compare the old sexual
symbol of the Freemasons with the new symbolism for future
Freemasonry by the analogy of placing a rock struck from a cliff face
and covered with rough grass next to a beautifully worked statue by a
sculptor. Those who have been to some extent initiated into the Royal
Art have been aware of this. Goethe, for instance, has expressed this
marvelously in the Homunculus episode in the Second Part of Faust.
There are still many mysteries
(Note 31)
in that work, which remain to be revealed.

All this
indicates that humanity faces a new epoch in the development of the
occult Royal Art. Those who officially represent Freemasonry today
know the least about what this future Freemasonry will be. They are
the least aware that something quite new will replace the old symbols
they have so often misinterpreted, and that this will have an
entirely new significance.

Just as
it is true that everything of real importance in the past stems from
the Royal Art, so it is also true that everything of real importance
in the future will derive from the cultivation of the same source.
Certainly, every schoolboy today can demonstrate the theorem of
Pythagoras; only Pythagoras could discover it, because he was a
master in the Royal Art. It will be the same in the Royal Art of the
future. Thus you see that the masonic Art stands at a turning point
in its development, and has the closest links with the work of the
Lodge of the Grail, with what can appear as salvation in the dreadful
conflicts all around us.

These
conflicts are only beginning. Humanity is unaware that it is dancing
on a volcano. But it is so. The revolutions beginning on our earth
make a new phase of the Royal Art necessary. Those people who do not
drift thoughtlessly through life, will know what they have to do;
that they have to participate in our earth's evolution. Therefore,
from a certain point of view, this very ancient Royal Art must be
represented in a new form to stand alongside of what is so ancient,
in which there lies an inexhaustible force. Those who can grasp the
new masonic ideas will strike new sparks from Freemasonry's ancient
symbols. Then it will also become plain that contention between Craft
and Higher Degree Freemasonry is meaningless set against the
endeavours of real Freemasonry.

For this
it is necessary to answer the question — and that brings us back to
our starting point — ‘What was the Royal Art up till now?’ The Royal
Art was the soul of our culture. And this culture of ours has two
basic ingredients. On the one hand, it is built up by those forces in
the human soul which concern themselves with the inanimate; and on
the other hand, by the forces of those people who make it their
principal task to control the inanimate simply bv means of the forces
summoned up by their organism; and they are the men, hence the Royal
Art has hitherto been a male art. Women were therefore excluded and
could not take part in it. The tasks carried on in the Lodges were
set apart, kept separate — the details do not matter — from
everything related to the family or to the reproduction of the purely
natural basis of the human race.

In
Freemasonry, a double life was led; the great ideas which came to
expression in the Lodges were not to be mixed up with anything
connected with the family. The work in the Lodges, being related to
the inmost life of the soul, ran parallel to nurturing the social
life of the family. The one current lay in conflict with the other.
The women were excluded from Freemasonry. This ceased the instant
that Freemasonry stopped looking backwards and turned its gaze
forward. For it was precisely what flowed in from outside[?] which
was seen as the female current; the Freemasons considered what came
from Nature as something priestly. And hitherto Freemasonry had
regarded that as hostile.

Man is by
his nature the representative of the force that works on the
inanimate, whereas the woman is seen as the representative of the
living creative force that continually -develops the human race from
the basis in Nature. This antithesis must be resolved.

What has
to be achieved in the future can only be brought about by overcoming
everything in the world that relies upon .he old symbols, that are
expressed precisely in what is sexual. The Freemasonry that is
obsolete today has these symbols, but is also aware of the fact that
we must overcome them. However, these sexual [symbols] must be kept
in existence outside in the institutions that relate to what is
natural and only in this division can the matter be
resolved.

Neither
the architect nor the artist nor the statesman have anything to do —
in their way of thinking, I ask you -o ponder that — with the basis
of sexuality in Nature. They all labour to control inanimate forces
with reason, with the intellect. That is expressed in the masonic
symbols. Overcoming this basis in Nature in the far future, gaining
control of the forces of life — as in the far-off times of the
Lemurian race, man started to gain control of inanimate forces —
that will be expressed in new symbols. Then the natural basis will
have been conquered not only in the sphere of the inanimate, but also
in the sphere of the animate.

When we
reflect on this, then the old sexual symbols appear to us as
precisely what has to be overcome, in the broadest sense; and then we
discover what in the future must be the creative and truly effective
principle, in the concept of uniting both male and female spiritual
forces. The outward manifestation of this progress in Freemasonry is
therefore the admission of the female sex.

There is
a meaningful custom in Freemasonry which relates to this matter.
Everyone inducted into the Lodge is given two pairs of gloves. He
puts one pair on himself; the other pair is to, be put on the lady of
his choice. By this is signified that the pair should only touch each
other with gloves on, so that sensual impulses should have nothing to
do with what applies to Freemasonry. This thought is also expressed
in another symbol; the apron is the symbol for the overcoming of
sexuality, which is covered by the apron. Those who do not know about
this profound masonic idea will be unable to have any inkling of what
the apron really means. One cannot bring the apron into line with
Freemasonry in the narrow sense.

We thus
have the conquest of the natural by the free creative spirit on the
one hand, but the separation by means of the gloves, on the other.
However, we could even take the gloves off in the end, once what is
lower has been conquered by applying the immediate free spiritual
forces of both sexes. Then only will what manifests itself today in
sexuality be finally overcome. When human creation is free,
completely free, when man and woman work together on the great
structure of humanity, the gloves will no longer be distributed, for
man and woman will be freely able to stretch out their hands to each
other, because then spirit will be speaking to spirit, not sensuality
to sensuality. That is the great idea of the future.

If anyone
today wants to enter the ancient Freemasonry, then he will only be at
the high point of masonic thinking about the future shape of mankind
if he works in this spirit, and if he understands what the times
demand of us, regardless of what the Order was in antiquity. If it
becomes possible to discover an understanding of what is called the
secret of the Royal Art, then the future will undoubtedly bring us
the rebirth of the old good and splendid Freemasonry, however
decadent it is today.

One of
the ways in which occultism will permeate humanity will be through
Freemasonry reborn. The very best things reveal themselves precisely
through the faults of their own virtues. And although we can only
look upon Freemasonry today as a caricature of the great Royal Art,
we must nevertheless not lose heart in our endeavour to awaken its
slumbering forces again, a task which is incumbent on us
(Note 32)
and which runs in a parallel direction to the theosophical movement.
So long as we do not dabble in the question which weighs upon us, but
really grapple with it out of the depths of our understanding of
world events, make ourselves understand what is manifesting itself in
the souls of the sexes, in the battle of the sexes, then we will see
that it is out of these forces that the formative powers of the
future must flow.

All
today's chatter is nothing. These questions cannot be answered,
unless the answer is drawn out of the depths. What exists in the
world today as the social question or the question of woman, is
nothing, unless it is understood out of the depths of world forces,
and brought into harmony with them.

Just as
it is true that the great deeds of the past had their origin in
Freemasonry, so is it also true that the great practical deeds of the
future will be gained from the depths of future masonic
ideas.